PollEverywhere is program that allows users to create and administer surveys instantaneously. The basic program is free for educational institutions serving grades K-12. This program has many great features that could be used for formative assessment. The website has a 1-minute tutorial that is helpful, but lacking some basic information; like, how do users activate the poll once they have created it? A quick YouTube search provided a 5-minute tutorial that was much more helpful. There is a help/FAQ section that answered some questions. Teachers interested in using PollEverywhere have to invest some time in creating and setting up the program. Depending on how comfortable they are with technology it can take 30 minutes to an hour to create the account with all the features they want. Once they have done that the basic template can be reused for future polls. They can then tweak options to match their polling needs. I think that PollEverywhere is best suited for grades 3-12, because students have to be able to type and spell to respond to poll. Although participants can respond to the poll via twitter or texting, I would suggest using the website option in a classroom setting. In situations where schools are using BYOD texting might be an option, but teachers need to look into any costs associated with texting. Once users have created a poll they need to indicate how many times someone may respond to the poll. If PollEverywhere is being used to teach about frequencies teachers would allow students to vote multiple times. Users determine the start and stop time, which is great for polls that require an extended period. I could see this product being used in a Civics class to teach students about voting. The teacher could give the students a certain number of hours or days to vote and then demonstrate the consequences of not doing this in a timely manner. Responses can be anonymous, but there are options for teachers to still link them to a specific student. The free option of PollEverywhere only allows for the administering of one poll at a time. When creating a poll the user has a number of ways that the audience can respond. They can have multiple choice questions, open-ended questions, Q & A brainstorm and clickable image. Responses to the open-ended questions can be presented as a text wall, word cloud, cluster or a ticker. When used for formative assessment in the classroom the teacher might want to project the poll on the ActiveBoard so students can see the responses on the screen as they come in. This would be a fun way to engage the students in their own learning. Users can download the poll as a PowerPoint slideshow using the presenter app. There are step-by-step instruction for this. PollEverywhere is a great tool for formative assessment that requires some time and effort at the front end and provides great benefits for teachers and students alike.
2. Screen shot
3. Possible uses in the classroom including grade level relevancy, evaluation of the ease and probability of use
PollEverywhere would be a fantastic tool for formative assessment in grades 3-12 (and beyond).The teacher could project the results on the ActiveBoard so everyone can get involved in the analysis of the data. The real-time results give teachers instantaneous feedback that they can use to address issues raised in the poll. Students will most likely enjoy seeing their responses pop up on the screen as a word cloud, text wall, bar chart cluster or ticker. The response can be anonymous which should encourage everyone to participate.
The probability of this product being used is dependent on the time the teacher is willing to invest to set it up. I do not think that most Elementary school teachers would use it. I can see Middle school and especially High School teachers using it. It is a sophisticated product that is used by businesses and very appropriate for college students. Of all the web 2.0 tools I tested this was my favorite one. I enjoyed figuring it out and actually created a poll that I responded to via text and the web. It was exciting to see my responses instantaneously pop up on the screen as I entered them.
4. Diverse learners
PollEverywhere will appeal to the visual and kinesthetic learners. The results can be presented in various visually appealing ways. Kinesthetic learners may enjoy the active interactions of participating via the web or text that may satisfy their tactile preferences.
1. Description
PollEverywhere is program that allows users to create and administer surveys instantaneously. The basic program is free for educational institutions serving grades K-12. This program has many great features that could be used for formative assessment. The website has a 1-minute tutorial that is helpful, but lacking some basic information; like, how do users activate the poll once they have created it? A quick YouTube search provided a 5-minute tutorial that was much more helpful. There is a help/FAQ section that answered some questions.Teachers interested in using PollEverywhere have to invest some time in creating and setting up the program. Depending on how comfortable they are with technology it can take 30 minutes to an hour to create the account with all the features they want. Once they have done that the basic template can be reused for future polls. They can then tweak options to match their polling needs. I think that PollEverywhere is best suited for grades 3-12, because students have to be able to type and spell to respond to poll. Although participants can respond to the poll via twitter or texting, I would suggest using the website option in a classroom setting. In situations where schools are using BYOD texting might be an option, but teachers need to look into any costs associated with texting.
Once users have created a poll they need to indicate how many times someone may respond to the poll. If PollEverywhere is being used to teach about frequencies teachers would allow students to vote multiple times. Users determine the start and stop time, which is great for polls that require an extended period. I could see this product being used in a Civics class to teach students about voting. The teacher could give the students a certain number of hours or days to vote and then demonstrate the consequences of not doing this in a timely manner. Responses can be anonymous, but there are options for teachers to still link them to a specific student. The free option of PollEverywhere only allows for the administering of one poll at a time.
When creating a poll the user has a number of ways that the audience can respond. They can have multiple choice questions, open-ended questions, Q & A brainstorm and clickable image. Responses to the open-ended questions can be presented as a text wall, word cloud, cluster or a ticker. When used for formative assessment in the classroom the teacher might want to project the poll on the ActiveBoard so students can see the responses on the screen as they come in. This would be a fun way to engage the students in their own learning.
Users can download the poll as a PowerPoint slideshow using the presenter app. There are step-by-step instruction for this. PollEverywhere is a great tool for formative assessment that requires some time and effort at the front end and provides great benefits for teachers and students alike.
2. Screen shot
3. Possible uses in the classroom including grade level relevancy, evaluation of the ease and probability of use
PollEverywhere would be a fantastic tool for formative assessment in grades 3-12 (and beyond).The teacher could project the results on the ActiveBoard so everyone can get involved in the analysis of the data. The real-time results give teachers instantaneous feedback that they can use to address issues raised in the poll. Students will most likely enjoy seeing their responses pop up on the screen as a word cloud, text wall, bar chart cluster or ticker. The response can be anonymous which should encourage everyone to participate.
The probability of this product being used is dependent on the time the teacher is willing to invest to set it up. I do not think that most Elementary school teachers would use it. I can see Middle school and especially High School teachers using it. It is a sophisticated product that is used by businesses and very appropriate for college students. Of all the web 2.0 tools I tested this was my favorite one. I enjoyed figuring it out and actually created a poll that I responded to via text and the web. It was exciting to see my responses instantaneously pop up on the screen as I entered them.
4. Diverse learners
PollEverywhere will appeal to the visual and kinesthetic learners. The results can be presented in various visually appealing ways. Kinesthetic learners may enjoy the active interactions of participating via the web or text that may satisfy their tactile preferences.
5. A sample of work and/or tutorial/video
A sample work